


The Wolf Pack

by cutsycat



Series: Cutsycat's Bangs [6]
Category: Bones (TV), Numb3rs (TV), Sherlock (TV), Stargate Atlantis, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 09:30:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20387506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: When Charlie starts to bond with his sentinel, Ian, at one of the crime scenes for Don's sharpshooter case, he discovers an entirely new world.





	1. Meeting Ian

**Author's Note:**

  * For [g_love99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/g_love99/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Art #2 for 2019 Every Fandom Reverse Bang](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20384593) by [g_love99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/g_love99/pseuds/g_love99). 

> This is for the [Every Fandom Reverse Bang](https://everyfandombangs.wordpress.com/).
> 
> The wonderful [g_love99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/g_love99/pseuds/g_love99) provided this picture from which I drew the inspiration for this story.  

> 
> Her artwork post for this story is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20384593).

[ ](https://imgur.com/ZHC1agL.jpg)

Charlie had known since the early age of 4 that he was a guide. The numbers in his head had basically forced him online and with them had come his own wolf spirit, though it was smaller than the other wolf spirits that Charlie had seen. Don came online as a sentinel not long after Charlie did. 

His classmates bullied Charlie because he was so much smarter and thus stranger than them. They also thought him weak because his spirit guide was so little. They called him a fuck up, freak, and useless nerd among other things. 

His brother had had no choice, but to defend him, which had ended up forcing his brother online and Don’s wolf had become a solid presence to protect them both. Charlie thought it was great that he was a guide and his brother a sentinel. He thought that this would mean he got to spend more time with his older brother who he loved. 

It was even true, but instead of bringing them closer together like Charlie thought it would; it just grated on his brother even more. In Don’s mind he could never get away from his little brother because his brother was his acting guide. Don hated it. He couldn’t wait to get his actual guide. 

Alan being a guide himself had immediately recognized his sons’ abilities and gotten them to a guide and sentinel center for training and registration. He couldn’t be more proud of both his sons. He hoped that this would bring them closer together.

When it became obvious that his sons needed different things, he and his wife made the difficult decision to each take charge of one son. As a guide, he stayed with Don who needed a guide and Margaret, his sentinel, went with Charlie. Charlie was already well developed in his guide abilities despite being only 13 and would do in a pinch if Margaret were to zone.

Though, honestly, Alan wasn’t worried about Margaret zoning. She’d been pretty steady ever since she gave birth to Charlie. Both Margaret and Alan’s spirit guides were wolves as well. It wasn’t surprising as wolves were the most common type of spirit guide for both guides and sentinels, which wasn’t saying much since guides and sentinels were still in the lower 1% of the population.

Once Charlie finished university, he and Margaret returned home and Charlie took a job working at CalSci. His brother wasn’t home much, working fugitive recovery in New Mexico with temporary guides as necessary, but when Margaret developed cancer Don immediately returned home. 

Don took a job with the FBI in LA to be close to the family again. If Charlie had hoped that having Don living nearby again would bring them closer together, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Charlie hid in P vs NP and denied that his mother was dying while Don was by Margaret’s side every day accepting what was happening and knowing he needed to make the most of every day he had left with his mother. 

Needless to say they drifted apart after their mother died. That never stopped Don from feeling protective of Charlie, however. Nor did it stop Don from visiting when in between cases or occasionally when a really tough case had him in knots. 

They’d been starting to mend their fences as Charlie pitched in to help Don with the occasional case, though they still had their disagreements. Don still hadn’t found his guide despite multiple attempts with multiple women to make them his guide. Unfortunately if the deep guide/sentinel bond wasn’t there, you couldn’t force it. Don had to learn that truth the hard way, but he’d finally learned it. He no longer tried to imagine what wasn’t there in his relationships. 

Being a sentinel was a strength when it came to his cases. That extra warning time that something was coming or his slightly faster reflexes had saved his life more times than he could count, both in fugitive retrieval and now in LA. Of course, the chance of him zoning was also increased. There were two unbonded guides on his team and he had to be partnered with one of them whenever the team separated just in case he zoned. 

He hated the restriction. Despite being team leader, he felt handicapped by these requirements. Both Megan and David were wolf guides and they understood his emotions quite well and did their best not to make things worse, but it did nothing to stop Don from feeling like a caged wolf not allowed to roam the wilds.

Charlie helped out on basically every case these days, now that Don realized Charlie’s security clearance was actually higher than his. Of course, their relationship was still strained. Charlie was still trying to please his big brother and while Don no longer felt the big brother desire for time away from his little brother, he still hadn’t come to terms with how Charlie behaved when their mother was dying. 

Also, it was hard for Don not to feel inferior to Charlie at times. His brother was just plain smarter than him and that truth galled Don at times. Still he was adult enough, now, not to let those feelings take over his life.

When they had what appeared to be a serial killer sharpshooter, Don thought nothing of inviting Ian Edgerton down to help out. He’d met Ian before when they were both working fugitive recovery. In fact, Ian had been Don’s teacher at one point in time. 

There was no denying the man’s sharpshooter skills. Don knew Ian’s help would be immeasurable. What he didn’t expect was what happened when Ian met Charlie.

Don’s sense of danger had immediately started going wild as he and Charlie approached the latest crime scene. He’d been doing his best to tamp down on them as he couldn’t see anything that would be the cause of his increased awareness of his surroundings. Charlie noticed and slowed down, happily launching into his explanation of where he thought the sharpshooter had probably been aiming from.

As Charlie finished, Ian interrupted, “Good guess.”

Charlie turned to face Ian, angry at what he perceived as an insult. The numbers completely left Charlie’s head as the world narrowed and all Charlie could see was Ian. He had no idea what he said after that. 

Don couldn’t help the growl that escaped his throat. He knew why his sense of danger had been amped up now. The danger wasn’t to him, it was to Charlie.

How dare Ian try to claim his little brother? Charlie was too good for Ian. Ian didn’t help matters, growling himself only seeing Don as another sentinel that might take Charlie away from him. 

Don cursed. He tried to get in between Ian and Charlie. He couldn’t let his brother bond with Ian. Ian was all wrong for Charlie. Charlie needed a home and Ian’s work always had him on the road. 

“You can’t have him. Pick someone else Edgerton. He’s too good for you,” Don snarled.

David stepped in at that not wanting additional bloodshed to breakout and recognizing that Ian and Charlie had already started bonding, “Come on, Don. You know you can’t stop a true bond.”

As David pulled Don away, Megan stepped in to lead Ian and Charlie to the closest sentinel and guide center where they could appropriately bond without worrying about messing up a crime scene. Don hated it, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it either. All he could do was focus on the shooter case and hope that Charlie would be ok. For Charlie’s part, Don wasn’t even on his mind. He was too busy bonding with his sentinel.

Ian hadn’t known that it could be like this. He’d worked with a number of guides before, but it had been practically clinical. Even the few guides he’d had sex with had never touched him like this. He’d heard the stories that everything changed when it was your true bond, but he’d never believed them.

He’d thought they were just fantasies or people looking through rose colored glasses. He’d been certain it would never happen to him. Not only because he couldn’t possibly be that lucky, but because as a sharpshooter he’d been trained to put all emotions out of his mind and just be while he waited for the shot. 

He didn’t see how anyone could get into his head with a mentality like that, but Charlie just fit. There was a calming effect Charlie exuded, but at the same time Ian could feel his excitement at finally meeting his true sentinel. There was also a touch of worry, though, Ian couldn’t figure out why Charlie would be worried and it was soon lost beneath the rest of Charlie’s thoughts as they completed their bonding. They spent about three days gorging their senses on each other before they surfaced enough that they could actually think about someone or something other than themselves. 

“Oh god, Don.” Charlie whispered aloud, continuing on in his head, “He’s going to hate me, now, I just know it.”

Ian felt the spike of fear from Charlie and immediately wrapped his arms around Charlie. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’s going to hate me.”

“Because you messed up his case by bonding with me?”

“No.” Charlie shook his head. “Though, he probably didn’t appreciate that either.”

“Then why?”

“Because I beat him once again. He’s the older brother. He should have bonded first and yet, I stole the limelight once again.”

“Hey. It’ll be ok. He’s your brother. He might be upset, but he’s not going to hate you. Now, me on the other hand.”

Charlie snickered. “That’s true. He’ll probably be pissed at you for corrupting me.”

“Little does he know.” Ian winked.

Charlie grinned back. Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games. The center had to run them through some tests to make sure that both of them were in full control of their abilities and there were no adverse reactions to their bonding. 

Bonding tended to strengthen both guide and sentinel abilities. It was rare for guides to be affected, but not unheard of. More frequently sentinels suddenly had their dials turned all the way up unexpectedly and sometimes that meant they needed to go through training again in order to handle their new capabilities.

Fortunately, everything seemed to be fine for Charlie and Ian and they were released a few days later. “Has it really only been five days?” Charlie asked as they left the facility.

“It seems longer, doesn’t it?” Ian agreed.

“Yeah. So much has changed. I mean where are we going to live? How are we going to combine our lives? It’s all well and good to be bonded, but there are so many new problems to solve now.”

“And you’re the kind of guy who needs to solve all the problems in front of him.”

“Guilty as charged.”


	2. Temperance's Talk

It wasn’t easy settling into a life with Ian, which wasn’t to say that he didn’t want to be with Ian. It was just that between Don and his father, it was difficult to have a relationship of his own. Ian was being a good sport about their overbearing protectiveness, but it was driving Charlie up the wall. 

Not only that, but there was something in the back of his mind that kept bothering him. He wanted to figure out what it was, but he wasn’t able to focus on it with everything else going on. For now, Ian had moved in with Charlie and his father, but that situation was quickly becoming untenable and Charlie wanted out.

Sure, Ian and he were bonded. They could feel each other’s emotions. They could even talk to each other in their minds if they were close enough, but five days wasn’t enough time for them to be solid in their relationship. 

There were many things they needed to work through; career decisions being one of those items right up there at the top. Usually, one went on dates and spent time together alone. With the living situation as it was, they weren’t allowed that.

Either Don or Alan was always around. Charlie hadn’t realized how much strain it would put on his new relationship with Ian to be living at home with his father. They were both adults, but that didn’t make it easier to deal with the stress of his family. 

On top of that, Don’s team was still struggling with the shooter case. Charlie was also struggling with the data, while slowly going out of his mind because he knew there was something he should be focusing on that was just out of his reach. Ian tried to help Don and support Charlie at the same time, but there really wasn’t much he could do for either. 

Charlie was at his wits’ end as Ian and Don ended up in a screaming match, again. At least, they’d stopped using fists. It seemed like Don just couldn’t accept Ian’s presence in his brother’s life. Charlie didn’t understand why it bothered Don so much. 

His fears were coming true. He badly needed time away from the stress of everything. Even his classes were disrupted as the students all recognized that he’d bonded and some of them were upset that he was off the market.

Or at least that’s what Ian claimed was happening. All Charlie knew for sure was that his students were struggling more than normal. People that normally scored 100% were turning in homework filled with stupid mistakes.

He’d finally figured out that the serial shooter wasn’t so much of one and that it was mostly one offs, which had allowed the FBI to start cracking the cases again. Ian and Don didn’t seem to be getting along any better, however. Charlie really hoped that Don would get over whatever his issue was soon.

Charlie had returned home and was splitting his attention between classes and something that was bothering him about the previous case. The numbers were running through his head, taking all his concentration. He wasn’t sure what they meant, yet. 

One set of numbers slotted into place and he realized that there was a serial shooter, but he only did some of the cases. With that Don’s team was off and with Ian’s help figured out where he would hit next. Charlie’s calculations also led him to the same area that Don's team was, making him the perfect target for the shooter.

Fortunately, David was faster than the shooter and tackled Charlie to the ground before he could get hit by the bullet aimed at him. Ian ended the shooter with prejudice before rushing down to make sure his guide was ok. He wasn’t the only one to rush to Charlie’s aid either.

Apparently, the sentinel protective instincts had been activated and Charlie was suddenly surrounded by a whole pack of wolves. The only wolves not currently surrounding Charlie were Megan and David’s, even his own wolf had joined the pack. That’s when the other set of numbers clicked in his head.

“The wolves.”

“What?” Don queried.

“Charlie, are you alright?” Ian asked, pulling Charlie into his arms to make sure that he was ok.

“I’m fine. I just realized that everyone I know that’s a guide or sentinel has a wolf spirit animal with a few exceptions of acquaintances at the center.”

“Ok, Chuck. How about you take your revelation off the scene, so that we can finish cleaning up here?”

“I’ll take him home.” Ian quickly offered.

Don glared at that, but nodded. Charlie was too lost in his head to protest as Ian led him away. He was quickly doing calculations to confirm that even with wolves being the most common spirit animal that what he was experiencing was abnormal. 

By the time they reached the house, Charlie was already babbling about how he was blowing the average for wolves. Ian let him talk, barely following the basics let alone everything else Charlie was chattering about. He had a pretty good idea that whatever Charlie was onto would probably end up uprooting their lives even more than they already had been.

Charlie jumped on the computer as soon as they got home, searching for more information on wolves to see if he could explain this phenomenon. While he didn’t find exactly what he was looking for, he did stumble across a talk that Dr. Temperance Brennan was giving on wolf guides and sentinels and their bones. He immediately pre-registered for the conference for both Ian and him, knowing that his sentinel would be unlikely to want him to go alone.

Dr. Brennan wasn’t the only well known scientist going to be at the conference. In particular, Charlie was looking forward to Sherlock Holmes’ take on things. The man took deductive reasoning to an entirely new level. 

He was bound to have insights into wolf guides and sentinels that Charlie had never even considered, which was saying something since he was a leading mathematician in his field. The day of the conference and Dr. Brennan’s talk dawned and Charlie was practically bouncing in excitement. Ian’s lips couldn’t help quirking up as he watched the professor. He was used to Charlie carrying himself with a little more decorum than he was currently displaying. Obviously, this talk was really important to Charlie. 

Everyone spilled into the huge conference room as the doors opened a few minutes before the talk was supposed to start. Charlie dragged Ian over to sit next to a man in a long black trench coat and a gray scarf. Ian shot the man and his companion, who wore a bomber jacket, a smile. He received a scowl in response from the trench coat man, though his companion smiled back and moved to hold out his hand for a shake before they were interrupted by the sound of the speaker arriving on stage.

Ian nodded his head in acknowledgement to the guy in the bomber jacket and turned to face the stage, settling in to listen to the talk. Charlie sat up in his chair, focusing his attention on the stage, though Ian noticed him glancing at their seat mates a couple of times. Ian watched the woman, Dr. Brennan move onto the stage with confidence and knew that whatever she was about to share was something she had absolute faith in and wasn’t just a theory like most conference speakers tended to offer.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Temperance Brennan and I’m here to talk to you about a discovery regarding wolf sentinels and guides. We extracted DNA from an ancient wolf guide. Radiometric dating places the bones at at least ten thousand years old.” Temperance flicked to the next slide showing the DNA under a microscope. 

“As you can see, the gene that we typically attribute as the sentinel or guide gene is also a source of increased proteins and enzymes. So far this phenomenon only occurs in wolf guides and sentinels. We are still looking into the purpose of the proteins and enzymes, but initial tests show that they interact with the brain, the nervous system, and the skin and may have had a psionic effect on things around them.”

“And this entire talk is now classified.” A man with a Canadian accent, about 5 foot 10 inches tall if Ian had to guess, stood up and interrupted. The man shot his companion a meaningful look, but his companion just looked blankly back.


	3. The End of the Conference

  
[](https://imgur.com/VZIeJoG.jpg)  


“What are you talking about, Rodney?” John asked.

Rodney sighed. Of course, John was a little slow on the uptake when he needed him not to be. “They are talking about the ATA gene, John. This symposium needs to be stopped, right now.” Rodney waved his hands at John in a well do something manner.

Rodney was even more confident that coming to this talk was the right thing to do, now. He’d originally thought that the talk might give some insight into the ATA gene therapy that would allow them to improve the 49% success rate when the therapy was used, which really wasn’t that great. Plus, every single person on Atlantis that could use the ancients’ devices naturally were either a wolf guide or a wolf sentinel. 

Rodney had been surprised to find that Elizabeth had been easier to convince than John to allow them to come to this conference. John on the other hand, had required bullying in order to persuade him to accompany Rodney to Earth. Sometimes McKay wondered if Sheppard had any brain cells hidden under that hair. If they could activate more ancient genes, it could make a world of difference for Atlantis.

Rodney had been content to just listen to the talk. He wasn’t really expecting anything useful to come from it, though, the woman seemed to not be too stupid. It only took him a couple of minutes to realize that the woman was actually talking about finding the ATA gene in old wolf guide bones. 

He’d immediately interrupted the talk to prevent oh so classified information from making it around the scientific community, at large. That would be a security leak so huge that he didn’t even want to think about it. It was bad enough how many people knew about it in SGC; they didn’t need the entire Earth populace aware of it.

Now to convince John that he needed to do something about this, now. Rodney started by explaining to John in simple terms what the lovely doctor had just described. John’s response of, “Really?” was not the kind of urgency that Rodney was looking for.

“Yes.” Rodney shot John a look that made it clear he was questioning his intelligence.

“Ok. You go distract Dr. Brennan. I’ll figure out something,” John ordered.

Rodney nodded. That was better. Still not quite the urgency Rodney would have preferred, but that was John for you. 

Of course, with Tony Stark, Spencer Reid, and Sherlock Holmes among others in the audience; there was already an uproar and demands of who he was and what right he had to keep secrets from the scientific community. “I’m Dr. Rodney McKay and I know a lot more about this topic than even Dr. Brennan does.”

John shook his head and let Rodney handle the protests for now as he pulled out his phone to dial General O'Neill. “Sir. We have an incident here and could use some backup.”

“What now?” Jack O'Neill barked.

“Apparently, this talk Rodney wanted to go to involves the ATA gene.”

“What?”

“Rodney used a lot more words than that, of course, but I’m pretty sure you need to get down here with the confidentiality forms for SGC before the scientists revolt over Rodney declaring the material to be classified.”

Jack sighed. “I’ll send a containment team. You keep things under control until then, Sheppard.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.” John hung up the phone and turned his attention to the stage where Dr. Brennan and Rodney were in a disagreement, which he couldn’t make heads or tails of, and the conference security was doing their best to prevent the rest of the audience from swarming the stage to get at Rodney. 

John waded his way through the crowd to the stage joining Rodney and Dr. Brennan on the stage interjecting, ”Now, let’s all just calm down and discuss this.”

Rodney shot John his “are you an idiot” look again and Dr. Brennan just completely ignored him. John turned his attention to the crowd and couldn’t help wishing he was back on Atlantis. Keeping this quiet wasn’t going to be easy.

At least, there weren’t any reporters actually at the conference. Not that it mattered given Tony Stark was here and the man undoubtedly had multiple journalists on speed dial. John breathed a sigh of relief as General O'Neill entered and immediately took control of the crowd.

Well perhaps took control wasn’t the best word as most of the scientists were reacting adversely to the airmen and marines he’d brought with him. However, he was getting the crowd sorted into people who would sign the waiver and be on their way and those that refused to sign the waivers without more information about what was being hidden from them. Already, there was a steady stream of people leaving after signing the confidentiality agreements. 

John instantly felt better as the room slowly emptied to about ten not counting himself, Dr. Jackson, the general, the airmen and the marines. Of course, the ones that remained were the stubborn ones that wouldn’t go away quietly, which included among others Tony Stark, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Brennan, Spencer Reid, and Charlie Eppes. Though, truthfully John wasn’t too worried about Charlie Eppes as he was a well known mathematician who’d worked with the NSA among others and was well versed in secrets and the meaning of the word classified.

Somehow General O'Neill got everyone to agree to move this discussion to Stargate Command. While everyone else was making their way to the vehicles that would transport them to Stargate Command, Rodney cornered John. 

“Why did you call O'Neill?”

“We’re on Earth and he is technically my boss. Plus, he has experience handling issues like this.”

“Do you have any idea what this is going to mean?”

John shook his head.

“They’re all going to want to join Atlantis. Where the hell are we going to put them? I don’t have enough lab space for all of their egos.”

“What are you talking about, Rodney?”

“Each and every one of them is a scientist. They’re going to want to be able to perform their own experiments.”

“So?” John looked blankly at Rodney not seeing the problem.

“Just what do you think O'Neill is going to do with all of them when they refuse to go back to their normal lives and want in on Atlantis?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“Of course not.” Rodney eyed John like his brain was the size of a bean sprout, “I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. He’s going to assign each and every one of them to Atlantis because what better way to plug a possible leak than to put it in another galaxy.”

“Oh.” John muttered as realization started to dawn, though he still wasn’t seeing whatever crisis Rodney was talking about. Atlantis had plenty of space. “I’m still not seeing the problem.”

“I guarantee they will drive you batty in less than a day if we don’t have lab space for them so that they can keep themselves occupied and we don’t have enough space cleared in Atlantis in order to accomplish that.”

“Crap and they’ll probably bring their significant others too, won’t they?”

“If they can.”


	4. Stargate Command

Charlie watched as everyone filed into the conference room somewhere in Colorado if his calculations were correct. General O'Neill wasn’t here, yet, and Charlie took the opportunity to engage in small talk with Sherlock, the guy in the trenchcoat from the conference. Or well he tried. 

Sherlock Holmes only response to his greeting was a grunt and a crossing of his arms like he was bored. His companion, who Charlie assumed to be John Watson if what he’d heard was true and who was currently wearing a bomber jacket, was quite happy to shake hands and return the greeting, even going so far as to elbow Sherlock and tell him to be polite.

While they waited Charlie tried to get Sherlock to talk about what he thought about Dr. Brennan’s talk. “What do you think this is all about? Have you ever heard of the ATA gene before?” Charlie asked, eagerly.

Ian put a calming hand on Charlie, but said nothing. Sherlock on the other hand, sniffed and said, “It is obviously the gene that the doctor found and quite as obviously something involved in a government conspiracy about which we are about to find out more.” Sherlock nodded his head toward the door that General O'Neill and Dr. Jackson had just entered through.

“If you would all be seated, we can begin.” O'Neill announced.

Everyone took their seats. There were more people than Charlie expected, but it didn’t stop him from being curious. He knew this had something to do with the wolf guides and sentinels, after all.

O'Neill then proceeded to dance around what they were really doing as he clearly stuck to the unclassified portions. Dr. Jackson had opened his mouth multiple times to obviously give them more information, but O'Neill had silenced him with a look each time. 

Charlie was beginning to wonder if they would find out anything without signing the disclosures when Tony Stark interrupted, “Stop this tap dancing around. It doesn’t suit you. For a classified project, it’s disturbingly easy to find information on Atlantis.”

O'Neill turned his glare on Stark. “That’s classified.”

Stark shrugged nonchalantly. “You didn’t really think that your encryption was enough to keep me out, did you?”

O'Neill muttered something about scientists too smart for their own good. 

Stark ignored him, “Just tell the good people about Atlantis, so that we can all get out of here and over to Atlantis.”

“You want to go to Atlantis?”

“Of course, who wouldn’t want to go to another galaxy.”

O'Neill slapped his hand against his forehead. Clearly classified and Tony Stark were two things that didn’t go together despite the man’s many government contracts.

“Wait. What do wolf guide and sentinels have to do with another galaxy or Atlantis?” Charlie interrupted confused as to what was going on. 

O'Neill sighed and gestured for Dr. Jackson to explain. What followed was a fantastical story of a device that was discovered in this very facility that led to another galaxy. A galaxy filled with devices made by a race called the Ancients that needed the ATA gene to activate it.

“And the ATA gene is the gene that makes wolf guides and sentinels.” Charlie nodded. This was finally starting to make some sense. 

“We really can’t tell you any more without you signing the confidentiality agreements.” 

Charlie exchanged glances with Ian. “This will make Don even unhappier.”

Ian nodded, “But you want to, right?”

Charlie smiled sadly. “Yes.”

Ian gestured for O'Neill to give them the confidentiality forms. Charlie started going through them to make sure he wasn’t agreeing to anything he’d regret, but Ian just signed. He knew there was no way Charlie wouldn’t go and he wasn’t about to let Charlie go to another galaxy without him.

That started a round of forms signing as first Spencer Reid then Dr. Brennan and finally Stark, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson all signed the paperwork as well. After that, O'Neill and Dr. Jackson proceeded to explain the fight with the Goa’uld and the Ori that was happening currently above Earth, as well as the war between the Wraith and Atlantis. 

After hearing all of this, Spencer finally spoke up, “I’m sorry, but I can’t go to Atlantis. If the Ori attack earth I’m going to be needed here along with my wolf Sentinel, Aaron Hotchner. Neither of us will spread this information, but should you need us don’t hesitate to contact us at the BAU.”

O'Neill nodded and Spencer Reid left the conference room. Charlie really hoped it didn’t come to that because that would mean Dad and Don would be in danger. He really wasn’t worried about himself. 

He knew Ian would protect him, but Don would be right on the front lines and his father would likely do something stupid like try to fight if aliens were invading. There was still something about this whole thing that was bothering him. He just felt like his wolf and the numbers were trying to tell him something.

After Spencer left, Sherlock stood up and left the room with no explanation. Dr. Watson stared after him before explaining, “Sherlock doesn’t do well with change. There’s no way he’d be ok in Atlantis. So we’re out too.”

O'Neill nodded.

“I better go check on him.” Dr. Watson quickly left the room to make sure Sherlock was ok.

That just left Dr. Brennan, Charlie, Ian, and Tony Stark in the room with O'Neill and Jackson. “What about you guys?”

“Are you kidding? There’s no way I’m missing out on another galaxy.” Tony Stark boasted.

“What about the Avengers?”

“Eh. They’ll be fine. They have Captain America to lead them.”

O'Neill shook his head in amusement, but knew better than to say any more.

Dr. Brennan shook her head in answer to O'Neill's question. “I’m out too. I’d love to visit, but there’s no way I can stay away from the work I have here that long.” Plus, she still needed to find out what happened to her parents and she couldn’t do that in another galaxy.

Ian glanced at Charlie before speaking for both of them, “We’re in.”

Just then the door slammed open. “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my brother?”

Charlie sighed. “Don. It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” Don growled, turning from O'Neill to Charlie only to stop and stare at Tony Stark. “Guide.”

“Sentinel.”

“Oh great. We have a just bonded couple that needs to go to Atlantis.” O'Neill grumbled.

“Well we have been talking about setting up a guide and sentinel center there. With this new information about the ATA gene, it makes even more sense for us to do so,” Dr. Jackson pointed out.

O'Neill nodded and poked his head out into the hallway. “Get me Sheppard and McKay.”

Dr. Brennan quietly excused herself not wanting to be involved in whatever mess this was and wanting to get back to her bones.

“General.” Sheppard greeted as he entered the room.

“These are your new recruits. First thing you need to do is get a sentinel and guide center setup in Atlantis. You’re going to be having a lot more wolf guides and sentinels coming your way and some of them won’t be bonded or will be newly bonded like those two.” O'Neill gestured to Stark and Don who were pressed as close together as they possibly could be, though, thankfully not actually humping each other, yet.

Sheppard blinked, “Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it, sir. If you’d follow me, we’ll get you all settled and ready for your transfer to Atlantis.”

Charlie and Ian quickly followed. It took Don and Stark a little more time to realize what was happening given that their attention was mainly focused on each other, but eventually they joined the others as Sheppard led them to a group of rooms. “Do you guys have stuff you need to pack?”

“Yes and we’ll have to explain this to Dad.” Charlie glanced at Don, dreading that conversation. 

He didn’t think Alan would take the news that both his sons were going to be in another galaxy well, especially since they wouldn’t actually be able to tell him that. Charlie just hoped that Ian and Don didn’t take their rivalry to the Pegasus galaxy with them.


	5. The Future

Charlie stopped as soon as he made it through the Stargate. Atlantis was beautiful not only in an aesthetic human way, but in a purely numerical way. Dimensions, patterns, and a million other equations of pure mathematical beauty appeared in his brain as he looked around.

He’d never seen anything like it. He felt Ian nudge him out of the way, so that the others could get through, but his mind was so focused on what he was seeing that it didn’t even register. 

“Out of the way. Out of the way.” Rodney bellowed. “I need to get labs setup for all of you. Let me through.”

John shook his head at Rodney. He knew there was no point in asking Rodney to be nice. That was just the way he was.

Fortunately, their new scientists and their sentinels didn’t seem to care if Rodney was rude. “She’s really something, isn’t she?” John prompted.

“This is even better than Avengers Tower.” Stark tried not to let the awe he was feeling show in his tone, but some of it snuck through anyway.

All four of them stood together taking in their first sight of Atlantis, the Gate Room. Don and Stark were the first to recover and they quickly followed after Rodney curious to see where Stark would be working. Don didn’t know what he would be doing, yet, but he assumed he’d be working with the military in some manner. 

Charlie was still lost in the numbers and Ian simply shook his head and guided him along after the other two. It was actually a lot easier with Don, now. Ian wouldn’t say they were best buds or anything, but Don had calmed down a lot since he found his own guide. 

Charlie and Don still needed to talk things out and there would undoubtedly be issues whenever Charlie got injured, but Ian was optimistic about this new opportunity. Don had apologized to him after his own bonding. He’d realized that Ian loved his brother as much as he did, just like Don loved Stark.

Ian wasn’t sure if Don realized that Charlie was an adult who didn’t need his protection anymore, but at least Don was no longer threatened by Ian’s place in Charlie’s life. For himself, Ian was astonished at how many wolves were on Atlantis. He hadn’t even met most of them and he already felt like he was part of the pack.

It was a completely different experience for him as he’d always been more of a lone wolf. They reached the science labs where both Stark and Charlie would be working when Charlie finally came out of the daze he’d been in. “The ATA gene isn’t rare. We just haven’t been testing for it correctly.” Charlie blurted.

“What?” Rodney turned and looked at Charlie in confusion.

“It doesn’t make sense. Almost every guide or sentinel I’ve met is a wolf. That is the most common type of guide and sentinel, but the number of wolf guides and sentinels that I’ve come in contact with doesn’t make sense unless guides and sentinels are far less rare than we know, which would also mean the ATA gene isn’t rare either.”

“But there are tests for guides and sentinels.” Ian protested.

“Those are really only accurate if one is online.” Charlie pointed out.

Rodney was nodding along in agreement. “We don’t need to be testing for the ATA gene. We need to be testing for guides and sentinels and the vast majority of those will be wolves which will have the ATA gene.”

Charlie nodded in agreement. Ian chuckled as Rodney rushed off to his computer to start looking into this. The four left behind turned to each other. “Are we ready for this, do you think?” Charlie asked.

“I go where you go.” Ian pointed out. Charlie shot him a smile and leaned against him. 

“You know we can do this, Chuck. Ain’t nothing stopped us Eppes before.” Don agreed.

Charlie smiled at his brother. He was looking forward to the new start on Atlantis and hopefully a closer relationship with his brother. After all, this time he wouldn’t be on the outside looking in like he’d always felt before around Don.

[ ](https://imgur.com/z2MeW9j.jpg)

**Author's Note:**

> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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